HEALTH & FITNESS
2B — THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2019
Report: Social media makes us less happy
By Alfred Lubrano
The Philadelphia Inquirer
As 2019 recedes, it leaves
behind a sobering legacy: Un-
happiness continues to haunt
Americans.
Social media tends to
drain joy from teenagers
and adults, both by stoking
anxieties about the “better”
lives others seem to be lead-
ing online and by robbing
time we should be spending
interacting with others in the
real world.
Meanwhile, broad issues
such as opioid addiction and
the pursuit of money contrib-
ute to unhappiness.
In March, the U.N. World
Happiness Report set the
tone on comprehending our
plight, showing, through a
complex formula, how happi-
ness in the United States has
dipped in recent years.
Findings were based on
numerous variables, such as
economics, levels of po-
litical corruption, and survey
questions, including, “If you
were in trouble, do you have
relatives or friends ... to help
you?” Also, people were asked
about feelings of enjoyment,
worry, sadness and anger.
On a scale of one to three,
American happiness slipped
from a high of 2.28 in the
1980s to recent score of 2.16,
according to the U.N. report.
The U.S. is slotted as only the
19th-happiest country in the
world, just after Belgium and
right above the Czech Repub-
lic. The happiest is Finland;
the least happy, No. 156, is
South Sudan.
In unrelated WalletHub
reports measuring happiness,
Hawaii ranked fi rst and West
Virginia last. Among cities,
No. 1 was Plano, Texas, while
No. 182 was Detroit.
One of the traits that hurts
Americans most is their quest
for more money when they al-
ready have enough, said Jack-
sonville, Florida, psychologist
Gary Buffone.
People in other countries
say that once their basic
needs are met, “any more
money doesn’t help toward
happiness,” Buffone said.
“Excess can lead to unhappi-
ness. Eating the extra piece
of chocolate cake, looking for
that high, doesn’t bring more
happiness.
“Happiness comes from
having good relationships
with people, and a sense of
purpose in life.”
Buffone cited a study
showing that people making
$75,000 a year won’t get any
higher satisfaction from more
money.
Happiness is elusive, but
you need to search it out, ac-
cording to Quintelina Lewis,
77, of Boothwyn, Pennsyl-
vania, who has endured her
share of woes.
“You have to fi nd it within
yourself to push to be happy,”
said Lewis, an endometrial
cancer survivor and a widow
who has raised and continues
to live with her four grand-
children, ages 18 to 21. The
family lives on Social Security
income and food stamps.
“My house is a mess, I can’t
keep up with what needs to
be done, but I’ve always been
upbeat, and I try to do the
best I can with what I have,”
she said. “I’ll get depressed
sometimes, but I keep on
truckin’.”
As optimistic as Lewis is,
however, she’ll allow that one
thing gets to her more than
anything else: Facebook.
“Going online just adds
to unhappiness,” she said.
“Someone saying on Face-
book they got new siding and
windows on their house — I’d
love that. But I can’t afford it.”
Beyond the envy factor,
Facebook presents sad stories
people must somehow absorb,
noted Burgandy Holiday, 41,
a married Mount Airy thera-
pist and mother of two.
“They set us up for the
worst humanity has to offer,”
she said. “And Facebook
has this feedback loop that
plays the horrible things in
the world, and it circles and
circles among us. We’re over-
consuming this content that
drives down our happiness.”
Life online proved diffi cult
for Americans, especially
teenagers.
On average, 12th graders
in the U.S. spent six hours a
day online in 2017, according
to the U.N. report. This meant
spending less time interact-
ing with friends, socializing,
going to parties, and even
sleeping.
All that corresponds with
growing teen unhappiness,
the U.N. report concluded.
Girls spending fi ve or more
hours a day on social media
are three times more likely to
be depressed than nonusers.
“Bullying also is a factor of
the dark side of social media
that increases kids’ sadness,”
noted Barbara Becker Hol-
stein, a Long Branch, Pennsyl-
vania, psychologist who works
with teenagers.
“Kids are waiting for us
adults to calm them down
from the excesses of being
online and give them feelings
of purpose. Not everyone is sit-
ting down together at dinner
for 45 minutes, chatting and
laughing.”
To illustrate the problems
teens face, Holstein shared
a video of a 13-year-old girl
named Alyssa (her last name
is withheld to protect her
privacy).
“Cyberbullying,” Alyssa says
in the video, “makes you keep
all jumbled-up feelings inside
and can ruin lives.”
She speaks of a friend who
was the victim of “horrible”
false stories told about her on-
line by former friends. When
the girl responded online by
saying, “I thought we’d be
friends forever,” her tormen-
tors retorted, “Stop talking to
us, clown trash.” The girl cried.
Beyond online complica-
tions, American happiness is
also being thwarted because
we are a “mass addictions
society,” according to the U.N.
report.
For complex reasons stem-
ming from socioeconomic in-
equality and growing anxiety,
among other things, Ameri-
cans are indulging in drugs,
alcohol, and food, and are
spending too much time shop-
ping. They’re even exercising
more than is healthy.
Addictions “directly lower
well-being ... (and) may also
give rise to clinical depres-
sion,” the report concluded.
Statistics may bear out that
somber diagnosis. Suicide
in the U.S. increased 30%
between 2000 and 2016; it was
up 50% for girls and women in
the same time frame, accord-
ing to the American Psycho-
logical Association.
Perhaps as a result of
people trying to self-medicate
because of the unhappiness in
their lives, experts say, drug
overdose deaths increased by
nearly 10% from 2016 to 2017
throughout America. Pennsyl-
vania registered 44.3 deaths
per 100,000, among the high-
est rates, fi gures for the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention show.
As the opioid crisis has
advanced, news reports have
shown that many drug deaths
are related to drug manufac-
turers’ push for profi ts.
While unhappiness persists,
there may be ways to cope,
said psychologist Mary Mercer
of Las Vegas, an expert on
optimism.
“To be happy, what I advise
people is to focus on their prob-
lems as not being permanent,
and being fi xable,” she said.
“Optimistic people know this,
and fi gure out ways to solve
problems.”
Further, she said, the happi-
est people are those who don’t
blame others for their diffi cul-
ties. “Optimistic people take
responsibility. It causes them
to feel better.
“In the end, you’re not
doomed to being depressed.”
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